We sailed from Vancouver on April 12. It was cold for the first 3 days and the last 3 days. Even the Canadians were wearing their coats outside. Many people hung out on the aft pool deck because there is no smoking on the ship except for a designated area on the aft pool deck. There is no cigar lounge. Many people were seasick the first day due to rough seas.
The mid-ship pool is in a ...
picked this cruise because of start and finish in Vancouver rather than flying one way.
99% of passengers were retired, staff were very attentive, dining menus were varied. went to Rudy's Sel De Mer one evening , the meal was excellent as was the waitress, only fault was that we felt rushed when the entree came minutes after the appitisers. After asking the waitress to slow down dessert came ...
For perspective, we have cruised over 50 times starting in 1981 and are now in our mid 60’s. We are 4 star mariners with HAL and Elite with Princess. We have also cruised with celebrity, crystal, Oceania, Royal Caribbean and a bunch of lines that have been incorporated into other lines.
The great and good.
We were impressed with the consistency of the quality of the meals in MDR. We were on ...
The Westerdam Circle Island cruise was a perfect choice as it was literally round-trip from our hometown.... Also, we'd heard good things about Holland America and figured we would give it a try...as we are in the process of shifting travel gears to do more cruising in the future.
Two thousand passengers is a whole lot of people to confine in close quarters for a lengthy sea voyage, but ...
A destination we've always wanted to try and it didn't disappoint.
Embarkation was as easy and quick a always. Arrived by 11 on board before noon.
Ship is absolutely beautiful.
Crows nest is reconfigured. Didn't have a problem with it but - there is plenty of room for a larger library, dance floor and a quiet dance group. EXC is ok where it is but there is lots of unused space. New ...
My wife and I wanted to celebrate our 55th wedding anniversary by going to Hawaii to escape cold weather without a long airflight. We have taken numerous cruises with Holland America and enjoyed all of them except that we can notice cutbacks in many areas.
First, the good: The staff, in general, was very friendly and helpful, (more on staff heads later). We didn't need much extra, but ...
Greed seems to be the drive for Holland America and the parent company (Carnival). The internet service was worse than the old dial up system in the 90's, and at $25. a day or $179. for the cruise, it was definitely not worth it. We signed up, but had to wait for emails and or Text, finally just waited until the next port to answer emails and other communications
I liked the Idea of paying ...
We had only taken a 6 day cruise to the Bahamas previously, so felt we were really stepping out to do an 18 day cruise. First of all, we could not praise our room steward, Aziz, and his partner Dan enough. They were friendly, competent, & personable. Our verandah suite was comfy with even more storage than we needed.
It seemed we were always eating! While some of the lunches & dinners ...
We were invited to join some friends on this cruise. Since my partner hates to fly and this left from our Hometown of San Diego-we decided to give it at try.
We are 2 star Mariners and although we've been on many cruises but never one with so many sea days and we were apprehensive.
We booked a balcony VB4166. The room is standard but the veranda is twice as large as the others on the upper ...
We were interested in a warm weather cruise with plenty of sea days. Usually cruise with Celebrity But this was our 4th cruise on HAL
The ship is a good size & tastefully decorated except for a couple of ghastly ornate benches near some elevators.
The lounge areas were nice & comfy.
Entertainment was varied. The BB King show was great! There were usually 3 shows per evening with a couple ...